| Rodeo News: |
| Native Houstonians Mark and Charlene Bowman can't remember missing the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. So when they realized Sunday was the final day, they had to go.
The 2005 show offered mixed results. Overall, general attendance dropped an estimated 7.5 percent from last year, which organizers blamed on six days of rainy or cool weather. Yet two of this year's performers Hilary Duff and Alicia Keys drew record crowds, with Duff setting a new paid attendance record at 72,843 and Keys close behind with 72,062. Those numbers helped bolster paid rodeo attendance to 1,127,239, up 1,153 tickets over last year. Shafer said the strong lineup of performers meshed with Reliant Stadium's revamped sound system to draw bigger crowds. |
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| hadnt put my hand in my rigging at all since the 10th round of the NFR (on Dec. 12), he said. I just kind of threw it back in the corner and came here tonight and put it on one. I hadnt even been on a bucking horse since then.
It just felt good. Its just second nature, just like riding a bicycle. I was lucky I had a really nice horse and Im going to get a check. Ford knows what it takes to be successful on the PRCA circuit. His father, Bruce, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1993 after qualifying for the NFR 19 times and winning a record five bareback world championships. Ive been around rodeo my whole life and Ive been around livestock my whole life, Ford said. I just kind of learned the ins and outs of it growing up.With a good start assured, Ford is intent on keeping the momentum going.Im going to nod my head and try to win first everywhere I go, he said. Thats all a guy can do. I just have to enter the right rodeos and get the right horses. |